January 15, 2009

More Charges Sought in Wone Murder Investigation

Prosecutors later today could announce additional charges against Arent Fox partner Joseph Price, his domestic partner Victor Zaborsky, and their roommate Dylan Ward, who are accused of obstructing the D.C. police investigation of the August 2006 murder of Robert Wone.

A grand jury was scheduled to meet today to assess the government’s pitch for new charges, Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner said at a recent hearing in D.C. Superior Court. The new charges could include conspiracy and evidence tampering, he said.

Meanwhile, defense lawyers representing Price, Zaborsky, and Ward are expected to raise a discovery issue at a status conference on Friday. Cozen O’Connor partner Bernie Grimm, who represents Price, fired off a sternly worded letter last week to Kirschner that questions whether the government has turned over all its evidence in the case.

Police say Wone, general counsel for Radio Free Asia and a former Covington & Burling associate, was restrained, sexually assaulted, and stabbed in Price and Zaborsky’s Dupont Circle row house. Price, Zaborsky, and Ward know more about what happened that night than they are telling, prosecutors argue. Kirschner handed over discovery in late December.

But Grimm (pictured at left) contended in the letter that the results of forensic tests were not turned over to defense counsel. Grimm wrote that he has no evidence from the government—including lab reports—showing that Wone was sexually assaulted.

“It appears from a review of the discovery you have provided so far that a considerable portion of the forensic and scientific work has not been completed,” Grimm said in the letter. “The discovery I have so far, in many respects, raises more questions than it answers.”

Numerous fingerprints were lifted at the row house, but the results of comparison tests have not been released to the defense, according to the letter. A document that was released says investigators sought to compare the prints to known individuals who lived in the area—and not the defendants.

In the released documents, prosecutors included a search warrant affidavit tied to a D.C. police investigation of a September 2006 murder in the 5100 block of Lee Street N.E. Grimm questions the relevance of the affidavit to the Wone case.

Also released were search warrant affidavits that detail the police interest in e-mail traffic between Wone and Price in the days before the homicide.

D.C. police, acting with the help of Montgomery County, Md., police, seized more than $7,500 worth of computers in September 2007 from an apartment in Silver Spring, Md. Price’s brother reportedly had been living there. Police were searching for an electronic diary, court records show. A person who claims ownership of the computers has filed a pro se motion to compel the return of the laptops and hard drives immediately.